FRANK LAMPARD admits he is haunted by regret about his three World Cups as a player.
But despite those disappointments “very patriotic” Lampard, who was appointed Derby boss this week, has ambitions to one day take charge of the Three Lions.
The Chelsea legend told SunSport: “I look back with immense pride. I got 106 caps, I wouldn’t have dreamed of that.
“But the problem with World Cups was, I was a determined, driven player, and they didn’t go that great for me personally or for us as a team.
“World Cups you set out to win. I played in three. The first two, when I was a main player, the groups were difficult, we got knocked out in the quarter-finals.
“I don’t think you should enjoy a World Cup that doesn’t go brilliantly. I was honoured I played in them but enjoyment comes with winning games and we didn’t win enough.”
Lampard and other members of the so-called Golden Generation — not to mention managers Sven-Goran Eriksson, Fabio Capello and Roy Hodgson — all copped flak when England failed to deliver at Germany 2006, South Africa 2010 and Brazil 2014.
But it has not put Lampard off the idea of taking charge of the national side in the future.
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He said: “I wouldn’t rule it out. It’s my country, I’m patriotic. But I would love to gain experience at different levels before taking it on.
“It’s a huge responsibility and it’s a different way of working, where you don’t work with players every day.
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“My main desire now is to work with players every day. It’s not that I miss the game in the sense of playing.
“It’s more of a desire to go back in, improve players and improve teams and be successful.”
Lampard will be part of the BBC’s team of pundits for this summer’s tournament and had a message for Gareth Southgate’s squad.
He said: “When you’re finished, you see it differently and you realise that these are tournaments to be enjoyed.
“I would tell the players: ‘Try to take that fear out of the equation, focus on every element you can around the games to get yourself to peak performance, and throw yourself at it’.”
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